Tech —

Larrabee becomes Laterbee: first Intel GPU not due until 2010

Intel's recent fourth quarter earnings conference call contained more surprises than just slightly lower-than-expected earnings. In response to an analyst's question about a timeframe for company's forthcoming discrete graphics product, codenamed Larrabee, Intel CEO Paul Otellini spilled the beans. "Larabee first silicon should be late this year in terms of samples and we'll start playing with it and sampling it to developers," said Otellini. "I still think we are on track for a product in late 2009, 2010 timeframe."

This puts Larrabee further out than I had expected, and makes it a possible companion to Intel's 32nm "Gesher" processor. A 32nm Larrabee that launches sometime after Gesher makes a certain amount of sense, since both products are multicore x86 parts where all the cores are situated on a high-bandwidth ring bus. Larrabee features 16 to 24 smaller, in-order cores, while Gesher has four to eight larger, out-of-order cores.

With Larrabee not arriving until 2010, this gives GPU makers quite a bit of time to catch up to multicore x86 in terms of programmability. And by programmability, I specifically mean the kind of improved exception handling and process switching capabilities that GPUs will need if they're going to compete with a multicore part like Larrabee for the coprocessor spots in commodity-based supercomputing clusters.

Supercomputing is one thing, but when it comes to graphics, the terrain is quite different. It's likely that when Larrabee launches, it will debut at or near the bottom of the performance heap in terms of existing game code. Intel will have to persuade game developers to build their engines around the new part, and that will take time. Indeed, not only will it take time, but there will have to be some kind of extraordinarily compelling eye-candy or physics-related reason for developers to make the jump.

Also on the horizon for both Larrabee and discrete GPUs from other vendors is the decline in the number of PC-only gaming titles, a decline that shows no signs of abating. By the time Larrabee launches in late 2009, we'll probably live in a world where the idea of designing an A-list title solely for the PC is as unthinkable as the idea of designing one for a specific vendor's GPU technology is today.